Should we slow down on social media to build a better business?

Depends on your business.

I recently let go of a social media platform to build my business. Why? It didn’t fit me like it does millions of others. To be honest, looking for content had become more important than my mission to secretly save the world one speech at a time. 

To be clear, what I do is 40% speaker (here’s where I’m an Entrepreneur) and 60% Instructional Designer (here’s where I’m a small-business owner). We can chat about the differences later, but we’re talking about the 40% in this article.  

This past May, I posted my last Video Blog on my Facebook business page and said goodbye. I quite literally told people that was my last post (for now), deactivated my account, and took a nap. 

Here’s what happened: 

1. I stopped worrying about content.
2. I stopped feeling FOMO. 
3. I vowed that if I ever post again, it’ll be because the content actually mattered more than me just making content. 
4. I stopped worrying about whether I was saying the right thing or being PC enough.
5. I realized I’m not the type of person that likes social media that much, but I’ll do it…

But, most importantly, here’s what I learned: 

1. It’s not that social media isn’t my friend, is that I felt like I was pushing instead of inviting.  
2. I had lost sight of my mission. 

The reason why I felt so relieved for the break, it’s because I had made content the business, and forgotten about why I was doing the content. Making content had taken precedent, and not why I was doing it. In fact, if I didn’t have my mission statement pop up on my calendar at 8 a.m. every morning, I likely would’ve forgotten it. 

I believe it has nothing to do with social media. It has to do with the loss of connection as to why I started the business. The likes and comments are great, but are they for my mission or for my ego? 

I’ve found this resting period amazing. And because my business page was tied to my personal page, I’ve had to be off my personal page as well. 

Right now, I’m enjoying meeting people for ice cream, face-to-face meetings, and video chats. Reconnecting with tangible humans has been nice. 

So, should we slow down on social media to build a better business? Depends on your business. Depends on your intention. Are you just pushing out content, or are you genuinely trying to help?